How does TV advertising work?

TV advertising is bought on a cost per thousand basis. This means that the advertiser pays an agreed amount for every thousand impacts that the broadcaster delivers to the target audience.

The standard currency in TV advertising is the TVR or 'rating'. The TVR is a percentage of the target audience – so if an advertiser buys 50 TVRs, they are buying enough impacts to reach 50% of the target audience once.

The TVR is a cumulative percentage, and therefore it is possible to buy more than 100 ratings. For example, 300 ratings would mean buying enough impacts to reach everybody in the buying audience three times.

When the campaign begins, the ratings are delivered through a number of spots of various sizes which make up the schedule.

The nature of TV viewing means that the impacts are not spread evenly against every person in the buying audience. Although a brand may buy enough impacts to reach everybody in the buying audience three times, there will be some people that will see the advert 10 times, and some that will see it only once. This is down to the viewing habits of the millions of people in the target audience.

How much does TV advertising cost?

The cost of TV advertising varies by month depending on the number of people watching and the amount of money being invested into each month. The pricing is dependent on the supply of impacts and the demand for those impacts.

A good indication of how rates change throughout the year is to look at the ITV station price. The graph below illustrates how the ITV station price tracks throughout the year. Please note that these rates do not reflect the final discounted cost per thousand that our expert buyers can negotiate.

Please contact us for exact buying rates for all channels.

These rates are the ratecard prices, and do not reflect the final cost per thousand that an advertiser will pay.

If you want to learn more about what tv advertising can do for your business, please don't hesitate to contact us.